Violence in movies can serve to shock, provide catharsis, and sometimes even carry a theme. But when it’s there for mere entertainment; when the filmmakers seem to enjoy it and want viewers to enjoy it too; if the audience starts laughing when somebody’s leg gets torn off, or their guts are pulled out and eaten by beasts — well, then you’ve got an aesthetic problem.
And a moral one, too.
All of which is my way of explaining why I didn’t care for “Cocaine Bear,” a movie that — like last year’s “Bullet Train” — would be a whole lot better if it weren’t so drenched in blood, guts, and gore.
Loosely based on an actual incident, the new horror hit is what’s called a “high-concept” movie — one that hangs on a single key idea. (“Shark at the beach!” “Killer at camp!” “Snakes on a plane!”)
In this case, a wild black bear has eaten a brick of cocaine — one of many that airborne smugglers dumped (for later pickup, of course) into Georgia’s Chattahoochee National Forest. So now, this drug-crazed ursine is prone to murderous and acrobatic rage; plus, she would love to get her claws into more of that bracing woodland “snow.”
Around this simple premise, tenderfoot writer Jimmy Warden builds an absorbing, multi-stranded tale involving hikers; two lost tweens and a desperate mother; some witless park staff; an intrepid detective; and several gangsters who want their missing stash.
Popular actress Elizabeth Banks, here overseeing her third feature, proves a skilled and clever director in the horror-comedy genre. But from the very first scene, she is also determined to tear her victims’ limb from limb, accompanied by copious floods of blood. What’s worse, many of these folks are innocents who only came to help.
It’s all so distressing that I nearly walked out during the dismal and gratuitous ambulance scene, where the “comical” deaths are anything but funny.
All this is too bad because the film has solid plotting and performances. Ray Liotta, in what turned out to be his final film appearance, frankly seems to be mailing it in — but everyone else is spot on. Keri Russell as a gutsy and relatable mother; Brooklynn Prince as her daughter; Isiah Whitlock as the cop. And Alden Ehrenreich is the best thing in the movie — so empathetic, nuanced, and watchable that he seems to have wandered into these proceedings from a totally different film.
And the picture looks good: decent effects, snappy camerawork, and handsome outdoor photography.
The only other downside is a handful of ridiculous moments: kids eat cocaine with no apparent effect; Mom suddenly stops calling for daughter the moment she enters a cave where the girl is actually hiding; and several folks miss glowing opportunities to fatally shoot the monster.
But when you choose a film about a bear on coke, you learn to live with this sort of thing. So, it’s the violence, not the absurdity, that spoils a lot of the fun here.
As my friend and fellow-viewer, Matt Kelley, observed: “Cocaine Bear” is not terrible — just too grizzly.
